


this is not because i like you (it's because i love you)

by thenightwing



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, basically just kara thinking fondly of how weird and adorable lena is, be careful, fluff all the way, it's one scene but still, warning for child abuse, with a smudge of angst because it's lena and her childhood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-19 04:53:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29994180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenightwing/pseuds/thenightwing
Summary: Lena is a woman of many quirks.They say that happens a lot with geniuses. Their intelligence differentiates them from “normal” people. They’re often labeled “strange” or “weird”. Extremists or jokesters even like to say that’s why a lot of geniuses go insane. Driven by madness, an ambition, and a craving for more knowledge.And sure, Lena is plenty smart. Kara doesn’t need to be friends nor in a relationship with Lena to know that. Her smarts is probably the first thing people think of when they hear her name, that is if they don’t fixate on her surname like most tend to.No, Kara is talking about her other quirks. Quirks that makes Lena Luthor “Lena”. Her Lena.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 10
Kudos: 136





	this is not because i like you (it's because i love you)

Kara Danvers is enamoured by Lena Luthor. Some might even say she’s in love with her. 

It’s not like it’s hard. Lena Luthor is probably the easiest person to love, and even if she didn’t know that was how she felt when she first stepped inside her pristine office at L-Corp with Clark Kent in tow, Kara knows loving Lena Luthor is easier than breathing sometimes.

And so as their friendship progresses, from a slowburn lighter of tentative contacts to volcanic fires of passionate kisses, lingering touches and scathing warmth, Kara finds herself more and more in love with the young CEO.

As a result of her love and their friendship, then turned relationship, Kara notices a lot of things about Lena, things about her that makes Kara fall deeper not despite but because.

Lena is a woman of many quirks. 

They say that happens a lot with geniuses. Their intelligence differentiates them from “normal” people. They’re often labeled “strange” or “weird”. Extremists or jokesters even like to say that’s why a lot of geniuses go insane. Driven by madness, an ambition, and a craving for more knowledge. 

And sure, Lena is plenty smart. Kara doesn’t need to be friends nor in a relationship with Lena to know that. Her smarts is probably the first thing people think of when they hear her name, that is if they don’t fixate on her surname like most tend to.

No, Kara is talking about her other quirks. Quirks that makes Lena Luthor “Lena”. Her Lena.

Most people don’t know this, but Lena is surprisingly the morning person between the two of them. She wakes up almost in sync with the sun, with no need for an alarm clock, and it had left Kara, an actual sun goddess, gaping in awe the first time she witnessed this.

Lena hates the taste of coffee, but she drinks them for the caffeine anyway. Kara wonders how on Earth could she stomach that wine that Kara thought tasted like a literal tree root if she can’t even handle the bitter taste of coffee beans.

Lena doesn’t like being photographed, but she loves the act of color grading pictures of her family and friends.

Lena would stammer out the number of Pi if asked unprompted, but would smoothly recite the entire lyrics to Ice Ice Baby in her sleep.

Lena also brushes her teeth a lot, and I mean, a lot. Most people brush their teeth 3 times per day, right? Once for every meal?

Lena brushes her teeth every time she consumes either a food or a drink. 

After a piece of pastry for breakfast, _brush_. 

Draining the coffee cup Jess got her, _brush_. 

Swallowing the plate of pasta Kara brought for her as lunch, _brush_. 

Done sipping a cup of Barry’s Tea she made after a 15-minute afternoon nap, _brush_. 

One day when Kara asked her about this peculiar habit, Lena had blushed crimson, cheeks a beautiful shade of pink-ish red that makes Kara want to kiss them gently. Clearing her throat, Lena explained this was stemmed from one of her many childhood memories with the Luthors.

More specifically, Lillian.

Apparently the older woman was having a bad day that day. Brooding as she went, soon spotted Lena skipping in the Luthors’ garden with her nanny, both smiling so bright you wouldn’t know if they were the sun or the giant ball of heat hovering over their head.

Lillian had waited, watched as Little Lena munched happily on a butter cracker Miss Clayton had given her, till the au pair went away to tend to her many other duties as a staff of the mansion.

The cruel woman then dragged Lena by the ear into the house, her grip tightening on Little Lena’s flesh the more she cried. She stopped Lena at her room, more specifically, her bathroom.

Hauling a barely 6-year-old Lena onto the sink, Lillian grabbed a pink toothbrush hanging neatly next to a blue plastic cup, squeezed out of a hefty amount of toothpaste on it, and dug it straight into Lena’s mouth without even a single warning.

Kara’s girlfriend could barely talk about how much it had hurt. Lillian wasn’t gentle, practically drilling the sharp bristle of the toothbrush into Lena’s delicate little mouth, ignoring the way white bubbly drools were dripping down her hand, and the sound of Lena begging for her to stop as blood started to pour out of her teeth, all the while spilling out words ever so vile and cruel.

Ever since, out of fear Lillian would suddenly grab her and pull her into the bathroom to inflict that sort of pain into her again, Lena would brush her teeth every time she eats or drinks something, much to the pleasant surprise of one oblivious Miss Clayton. 

The habit followed her into adulthood, turning a violent Lillian into friends staying away from her because she smelled funny, relationship partners shying away from her affection because she smelled funny, and business partners talking behind her back about how she… well, smelled funny. 

So she diligently excuses herself after every meal, keeps an extra brush and a tube of Colgate in her purse, and breathes into her hand every 10 minutes or so.

After Lena had finished the story, they had collapsed into silence. Lena taking back the control of her mind after re-indulging herself into the darkness of her past, and Kara taking the time for the pain in her heart to spread throughout her entire body. Later that same night, Kara had kissed every inch of Lena’s mouth, whispered statements of awe and want as she makes sure to pour all her love into this wonderful human. This brilliant, beautiful, wonderful human that deserves so much better than what the world has given her.

Much to Kara’s relief, not all of Lena’s quirky habits come from traumatic experiences of being raised by the literal wolves of Wall Street.

Kara especially finds it very endearing how Lena, Lena “scary boardroom lady” Luthor, has a habit of verbally apologizing to inanimate objects.

Lena does it very subtly, almost always a whisper under her breath. But Kara’s superpowered Kryptonian ears aren’t there just for show, and sometimes, if she’s lucky, she can hear the sound of Lena apologizing to Kara’s precious childhood teddy “Ted” for dropping him as she clears Kara’s room out, or Lena whispering fevered sorrys to their cat Major Beans, the feline having zero shit of Lena clipping all his badass claws off.

One memory that has Kara simultaneously rolling in laughter and sighing in exasperation is that time when she and Kara were having a fight about how Kara needed to inform her of when she gets hurt on a Super mission so she can come take care of her. 

Kara, being Kara, didn’t like the idea of worrying Lena like that, and adamantly said she had it handled, Alex had her handled, the team had it handled, etc.

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say because Lena had screamed in her face for a full minute, anger and worry merged into one beautiful explosion of emotion. Arms swinging so violently it looked like she was the one with super speed, and subsequently flinging her very expensive, very new, top secret gadget thingy out of their window.

Kara had leaped after the device seeing as Lena’s face had gone a shade of white she had never seen before, and when she returned it to Lena’s anxious hands, she was deeply amused to see Lena apologizing furiously to the still in-tact machine. A snort had escaped, unwillingly Kara will add, and Lena’s body stiffened.

Kara doesn’t know why Lena got so embarrassed to the point she yeeted herself out of their window, the same direction she had flung her phone just seconds earlier, but Kara knows she’s in love with the weirdest genius in the world. And she tells her that over and over, laying in bed together, her arms around the center of her universe, who she loves more than anything and anyone in this existing world.

And she wouldn’t want to change a thing.

**Author's Note:**

> it's been a while since i wrote anything, so i hope you enjoy reading this short piece that came sliding into my head like michael jackson on steroid. looking forward to season 6! let's hope this season is when we get the endgame we deserve.


End file.
